Lady Anne Hemphill (nee Ruttledge) passed away this week at Craughwell Nursing Home in County Galway. An elegant and friendly lady, with a pleasant greeting for everyone, she will be remembered as one of the most accomplished Field Masters for the Galway Blazers, a role she filled with style for fifteen seasons.
I remember hunting in Oranmore when Michael Dempsey was huntsman, and as he drew the last covert at the Rifle Range in near darkness, hounds found immediately and we were away. Lady Anne leading the field came down in a narrow lane when her horse slipped. Deciding to stop and help we got a glimpse of her hand barely visible over the wall waving us on as she was trying to extricate herself from under her horse, saying,” Go, on, go on, don’t mind me, enjoy yourselves!”
She was born in India where her father Robin was attached to the Indian Cavalry as Commander of the Governor’s Bodyguard in Madras. It was there that she first hunted, initially with the Peshawar Hounds and later with the Ootacamund Hounds in the Ooty Valley.
When she was six the family returned to Ireland to live at her mother Rose Burke’s home at Cloonee in County Mayo. It did not take long for her father to buy a Connemara pony from Paddy Daly near Lough Mask named Peggy. Paddy Moran who worked on the farm took her hunting regularly to the North Mayo Harriers. She married Peter Patrick Hemphill, the 5th Baron Hemphill in 1952, and they moved into Tulira Castle shortly afterwards.
Over dinner with film director John Huston, then Master of the Galway Blazers, she purchased two of his Connemara ponies Glen Nelly and Star of Fahy that were to be the foundation stock of the Tulira Connemara Pony Stud which at its height stocked fifty ponies. She put the mares to Tooreen Rose which produced the stallion Tulira Mairtin and Tulira Mavourneen, later a champion at the Dublin Horse Show. She produced many international champions, like Cregmore Colm, champion in Australia, Napoleon in Libya, and Tulira Bobby, champion in Australia. Pakie Whelan still stands her stallion Tulira Robuck on his farm.
She was in demand as a judge of Connemara ponies, and was delighted when her granddaughter Serena started hunting with the Blazers and expressed her interest in taking over the Tulira Connemara Pony Stud, which will continue to maintain the high standards that Lady Anne set down.
She received many awards over the years: the Connemara Pony Society Hall of Fame Award as owner/breeder of the performance mare Tulira Katie Daly, and in 2012 the Royal Dublin Society Award for her Distinguished Services to Equestrianism in Ireland by the President of the RDS, Fonsie Mealy, in the Main Arena during Horse Show Week.
She founded the County Galway Pony Club in 1963 whose colours are the maroon and white of Galway, and brought out the best in every young person. They won a number of Irish championships, including being placed at Stoneleigh. She produced many fine riders including international junior eventers, and the occasional celebrity, particularly actress Anjelica Huston.
Her late husband Peter Patrick was chairman of the Galway Race Committee and a Senior Stewart of the Turf Club. He was responsible for many innovations in Irish racing, particularly corporate sponsorship, mobile starting stalls, and facilities, and with him she was able to follow her passion for horse racing.
We will miss her welcoming smile, which was usually followed by, “Now tell me where you have been and what you’ve been doing since we last met.”
She is survived by her son Charles, daughters Angela and Mary Anne, sons and daughter in law, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and her wide circle of friends.
Posted July 15, 2015
Noel Mullins is a lifelong foxhunter and sporting photo/journalist. Click to visit his website and view his books and articles.